42 Track Converter for the Amdisk III and LKDOS

A Big Thanks goes to Richard Hurd for the sharing of info on how he hooked up his disc drives with his LarKen disc IF, and for a formatting utility for the 3″ disc system. Sharing what we learn helps us all, and this is what the TS user community is all about. Richard also had a request, does anyone have a Spectrum/2068 conversion table?? The ones in particular are:

LABEL          Spectrum Address(Hexadecimal)
RECLAIM_2              19E8
MAKE_ROOM              1655
TEMPS                  0D4D
NEXT_2NUM              1C79
STK_TO_BC              2307
CO_TEMP_3              21F3
EXPT_STRING            1CBC
EXPT_2NUM              1C7A

WE WILL PUBLISH ANSWERS IN THE NEXT ISSUE TO HELP OUT NOT ONLY RICHARD, BUT ANYONE ELSE WISHING TO LEARN.

  10 REM 42 TRACK CONVERTER FOR THE AMDISK III & LKDOS  by Richard Hurd
  20 POKE 23658.8: REM CAPS ON
  30 CLS : PRINT "1) CAT"'"2) CONVERT"'''"CHOOSE ONE"
  40 IF INKEY$<>"" THEN  GO TO 40
  50 IF INKEY$="" THEN  GO TO 50
  60 LET A=CODE INKEY$: IF A<49 OR A>50 THEN  GO TO 30
  70 CLS : PRINT #4: CAT "",
  80 IF A=49 THEN  PRINT #1;AT 0,5;"Press SpaceBar For Menu": PAUSE 0: RUN
  90 LET save=40015: REM save buffer to disk
 100 LET load=40012: REM load   disk into buffer
 110 LET Sprt=40009: REM Send   Drive data to port
 120 LET setrk=40003: REM move head
 130 LET trac=43300: REM trac #  MC variable
 140 LET Drv=43301: REM Drive # MC variable
 150 REM LOAD TRACK
 160 POKE trac.0: POKE drv.2: RANDOMIZE USR setrk
 170 POKE drv,2: RANDOMIZE USR sprt: PAUSE 20: RANDOMIZE USR load
 180 REM ALTER DIRECTORY DATA
 190 BEEP .1,10
 200 POKE 45021,42: POKE 45104,80: POKE 45106,82
 210 REM SAVE TRACK
 220 POKE trac,0: POKE drv,2: RANDOMIZE USR setrk
 230 POKE drv,2: RANDOMIZE USR sprt: PAUSE 40: RANDOMIZE USR SAVE
 240 CLS : PRINT #4: CAT "",
 250 PRINT #1;AT 0,0;"ANOTHER? YES OR NO"
 260 IF INKEY$="" THEN  GO TO 260
 270 IF INKEY$="Y" THEN  RUN
 280 STOP
 290 BORDER 7: PAPER 7: INK 9: CLS
 300 PRINT "40 TRACK TO 42 TRACK CONVERSION FOR THE AMDEK AMDISK III FDD"
 310 PRINT '''"This routine LOADs the Directorytrack into Ram, converts it to  42 tracks, then SAVEs it back todisk."
 320 PRINT ''"Work is done on Drive #0 ONLY!"'''"Make sure that the Write Protect Tab is OFF!"
 330 PRINT '''''TAB 3;"Press SpaceBar To Convert"
 340 IF INKEY$="" THEN  GO TO 340
 350 RUN
 360 PRINT #4: LOAD "Fcode.CL"CODE : CLEAR 39999: GO TO 290
 370 PRINT #4: SAVE "40-42.B1" LINE 360: PRINT #4: SAVE "Fcode.CL"CODE 40000,1000

To convert 40 track formatted diskettes to 42 formatted tracks:

1. FORMAT a 3″ diskette to 42 tracks

2. COPY the 40 track diskette to the 42 track diskette

3. Use the utility 40-42 to convert the directory track

The alternative is to FORMAT the 3″ diskette to 42 tracks to begin with. Which a person can do if they know it is possible.